Huawei launches 5G and IoT customer innovation centre in Sydney

Huawei has launched the Customer Solution Innovation Centre (CSIC) in Chatswood, Sydney, in a bid to demonstrate its 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities to customers, government, and industry.

Speaking at the opening of the CSIC on Thursday morning, Huawei Australia chair John Lord said the centre shows how Huawei is committed to innovation and research and development (R&D) in Australia.

“We want to help drive this maturing digital economy in Australia, and we see the CSIC … as a key part of this for our customers, our partners, and also the ICT industry,” Lord said.

“It is very important we stay open, it’s very important we have the major players here in Australia working together, bringing innovation, competing with each other so in Australia we have competition in our economy, but we also have competition in our innovation and technology.”

According to Huawei Australia CTO Dr David Soldani, the centre will be used for designing, developing, and testing solutions across 5G and IoT, driving an open industry ecosystem, and accelerating digital economy transformation.

Huawei demonstrated virtual reality use cases, FIFA World Cup football streaming, augmented reality meeting rooms, and live drone footage from Shenzhen, which were all being broadcast via 5G cells.

“We want the centre to be used by everybody — our customers, our partners, even consumers, regulators, everyone can come see what’s happening in the industry,” Huawei Australia CEO George Huang told ZDNet.

“Because especially when a lot of new technologies are coming — 5G, IoT — many people don’t exactly know what they are, so we hope they can come to see what’s happening in the industry, and our customers can understand really … what kind of possibilities we can explore.”

Soldani also used the event to emphasise that Huawei is a 100 percent employee-owned company, with more than 700 staff members in Australia and offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.

Following anti-Huawei national security advice from the US, Huawei is looking into how the cost of 5G network rollouts would blow out if it were to be banned from providing equipment to Australia’s telcos.